'Snort up "Cocaine Nights". It's disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock' Will Self Five people die in an unexplained house fire in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich, retired British, centred on the thriving Club Nautico. The club manager, Frank Prentice, pleads guilty to charges of murder - yet not even the police believe him. When his Charles arrives to unravel the truth, he gradually discovers that behind the resort's civilized facade flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex. At once an engrossing mystery and a novel of ideas, 'Cocaine Nights' is a stunningly original work, a vision of a society coming to terms with a life of almost unlimited leisure. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Neil Gaiman, Zadie Smith, John Lanchester and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.

Product Description&colon;

The remarkable bestseller from the author of Crash - Cocaine Nights is an engrossing mystery and unnerving vision of a society enjoying a life of unlimited leisure. When Charles Prentice arrives in Spain to investigate his brother's involvement in the death of five people in a fire in the upmarket coastal resort of Estrella de Mar, he gradually discovers that beneath the civilised, cultured surface of this exclusive enclave for Britain's retired rich there flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex . What starts as an engrossing mystery develops into a mesmerising novel of ideas - a dazzling work of the imagination from one of Britain's most original and controversial novelists - author of Super-Cannes and Millennium People.

Review&colon;

When travel writer Charles Prentice arrives at Estrella de Mar, a resort town near Gibraltar populated primarily by British retirees, to find out why his brother Frank has been jailed, he's shocked to find that Frank has confessed to a spectacular act of arson that left five people dead. Charles tries to find the real culprit by hanging around Estrella de Mar, which one resident describes as "like Chelsea or Greenwich Village in the 1960s. There are theatre and film clubs, a choral society, cordon blue classes.... Stand still for a moment and you find yourself roped into a revival of Waiting for Godot." But the longer he stays, the more confused Charles is by the residents' breezy lack of concern about the constant background of vandalism, rape, prostitution, and drug dealing.

Things become clearer as Charles makes the acquaintance of local tennis pro Bobby Crawford, who has some interesting hypotheses about how to maintain the quality of the inner life in the age of affluence. As another of the locals explains, "Leisure societies lie ahead of us, like those you see on this coast. People ... will retire in their late thirties, with fifty years of idleness in front of them.... But how do you energize people, give them some sense of community?" Bobby's succinct answer, provided to Charles in another context: "There's nothing like a violent reflex now and then to tune up the nervous system." Bobby convinces Charles to help him replicate his social experiment in an adjacent retirement community, slowly convincing him that crime and creativity really do go hand in hand. But who, if anybody, takes the responsibility?

Cocaine Nights resonates quite neatly with Ballard's earlier science fiction and experimental stories. As early as The Atrocity Exhibition, Ballard was speculating about the salubrious effects of transgression, and his science fiction novel High Rise also deals with the introduction of violence to a self-contained paradise. Cocaine Nights differs from that earlier work primarily in that it is a naturalistic fiction set in a world that is much more ostensibly real, a world that, with a little less detached theorizing (even at his most natural, it seems, Ballard cannot help but be clinical) on the part of its characters, might even be mistaken for real. --Ron Hogan

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Book Description:HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, 1997. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 196 x 130 mm. Language: English Brand New Book. Snort up Cocaine Nights . It s disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock Will Self Five people die in an unexplained house fire in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich, retired British, centred on the thriving Club Nautico. The club manager, Frank Prentice, pleads guilty to charges of murder - yet not even the police believe him. When his Charles arrives to unravel the truth, he gradually discovers that behind the resort s civilized facade flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex. At once an engrossing mystery and a novel of ideas, Cocaine Nights is a stunningly original work, a vision of a society coming to terms with a life of almost unlimited leisure. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Neil Gaiman, Zadie Smith, John Lanchester and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs. Bookseller Inventory # AA89780006550648

Book Description:HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, 1997. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 196 x 130 mm. Language: English Brand New Book. Snort up Cocaine Nights . It s disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock Will Self Five people die in an unexplained house fire in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich, retired British, centred on the thriving Club Nautico. The club manager, Frank Prentice, pleads guilty to charges of murder - yet not even the police believe him. When his Charles arrives to unravel the truth, he gradually discovers that behind the resort s civilized facade flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex. At once an engrossing mystery and a novel of ideas, Cocaine Nights is a stunningly original work, a vision of a society coming to terms with a life of almost unlimited leisure. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Neil Gaiman, Zadie Smith, John Lanchester and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs. Bookseller Inventory # AA89780006550648

Book Description:1997. Paperback. Book Condition: New. New edition. 130mm x 197mm x 23mm. Paperback. 'Snort up Cocaine Nights. It's disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock' Will Self Five people die in an unexplained house fire in the.Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. 352 pages. 0.260. Bookseller Inventory # 9780006550648

Book Description:Harper Perennial 2006-09-04, 2006. Book Condition: New. Brand new book, sourced directly from publisher. Dispatch time is 24-48 hours from our warehouse. Book will be sent in robust, secure packaging to ensure it reaches you securely. Bookseller Inventory # NU-BER-00000757

Book Description:Harper Perennial, 2006. Paperback. Book Condition: New. Brand New Book. Shipping: Once your order has been confirmed and payment received, your order will then be processed. The book will be located by our staff, packaged and despatched to you as quickly as possible. From time to time, items get mislaid en route. If your item fails to arrive, please contact us first. We will endeavour to trace the item for you and where necessary, replace or refund the item. Please do not leave negative feedback without contacting us first. All orders will be dispatched within two working days. If you have any quesions please contact us. Bookseller Inventory # V9780006550648

Book Description:HarperCollins Publishers HarperPerennial, 1997. paperback. Book Condition: New. *** NEW COPY *** TITLE SHIPPED FROM UK *** Binding paperback 'Snort up Cocaine Nights. It's disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant-garde writers into a hatted cock' Will Self 'Snort up Cocaine Nights. It's disorientating, deranging and knocks the work of other avant. Bookseller Inventory # 0006550649